Workflow FCP to STP to Color efficiency

I was hoping someone with a bit more experience might be able to explain to me my limitations. I am trying to be as efficient as possible when working with Final Cut Studio.
Typically, I have been doing my edits in Final Cut Pro and then roundtripping to Soundtrack Pro and then finishing with a roundtrip from FCP to Color.
•Is there a way have 2 individuals - one work on STP and one work in Color - work at the same time on the same edited sequence after video edits have been made in FCP?
•Can I roundtrip the same sequence to both programs (STP and Color) at the same time and have 2 separate machines work on the same file?
I would love to be able to speed up my post production work. I do not have Final Cut Server; is there any way to do something like this?
Thanks!

Hi Jim,
Many thanks - this has helped a lot and I can now work on the audio with each clip and the resulting file size has gone down to a fraction of the original.
Any thoughts on the 2nd part of my question around audio tracks? As mentioned my Sony A1 seems to have captured two tracks and I need to discard one (the onboard mic). If I do this by simply deleting the 2nd Audio track in FCP when I open the track 1 in STP I can see it again. I guess by removing it from the FCP timeline does not result in removing the track from the referenced file that is sent to STP.
Tried converting tracks to mono in STP, saving and returning to FCP but then I get a 'reconnect missing media' error as the number of tracks has changed. When I reconnect it works fine (mono audio from both left and right) but the red \ through the file name audio symbol is still shown against the STP file name in the FCP browser. Suppose I can live with this but the red \ is probably telling me that I am doing something wrong!!
Thanks once again for the help so far,
Regards, Mike

Similar Messages

Missing "(sent)" files roundtripping b/n FCP and STP

Sorry, but I'm posting this here because the STP forum is quite slow to reply. And, I'm not sure if this is an FCP or STP issue.
I have just finished my first project using STP. I was doing a lot of round tripping b/n FCP5 and STP (about 15 clips) and everything was working splendidly. Airconditioner noise easily zapped! A beautiful thing. Annoying pops and cracks removed with just a few clicks of the mouse. More beautiful things. Then...I finished the project (thank gawd), output via Compressor and into DVDSP. The final DVDs are produced and the client loves them. But, I had both a 30i and 24Pa version of the project. I had originally edited the 30i version and then duplicated this project and removed all the Advanced Pulldown to produce the 24P version (without having to re-edit; another beautiful thing). Note, I DID NOT do the STP round-tripping until the 24P version of the project. After everything was complete, I deleted the 30i project (it was never needed) leaving just the 24P version on the internal disks.
Suddenly, when I next opened the 24P version of the project ALL OF THE STP-FIXED AUDIO WAS GONE! NOW OFFLINE!!!
Where the heck did they go? And, where were they originally? When you round-trip like this, what kind of file is STP (or FCP) creating? In the Browser, I noticed FCP creates a new audio file clip icon and appends "(sent)" to the original audio clip name (e.g. an audio clip with the name "21DConfRoom03" has a duplicate? audio clip created, presumably by STP, with the new filename "21DConfRoom03 (sent)")
Where are these so-called "(sent)" audio clips source stored on disk? Where in the standard FCP file structure are they? Is it possible FCP was putting them into the 30i version of the project file structure by mistake? (remember, i first edited in the 30i project version before duplicating and creating a 24P version).
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
-Michael

When you say ProTools outputting individual aiff, is it a mix down file?
Yes. I have certain audio configurations that we need to output for the networks. Ch1 & 2 are a stereo mix, then CH3&4 might be Mix minus Music, then Ch5 Mono Dialog, Ch6 Mono Prod Audio. Ch7&8 SFX....9 and 10 Stereo music.
So the mixer mixes down what we need for the various tracks.
Also, as I change my film, is there any way to update the found files in ProTools?
Don't change your cut. You should not be sending the audio to the mix if you aren't done cutting. You wait until you have picture lock, then send the audio. If there is a change, then you re-export the OMF, they reconform, and send new tracks. HOW does the audio guy conform? Got me...I just know that they can.
Shane

Metering issue between FCP and STP

Hello folks,
I'm having an issue when I export a piece of audio from FCP to STP. Once it is in STP, I normalize it up to 0 db. When this is complete, the meters peak in the 0 db range. When I save and return that same piece of audio back to FCP, it will now peak at -12 db. I'm unsure of why there is a discrepency in the meters. Why does it say 0 db in one program and -12 db in the other? I'm not sure what I'm missing and was curious to know if others have had this issue as well.
Mac 2.0 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4) FCP Studio
Mac 2.0 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4) FCP Studio

Yes the meters are all wonky in STP. My guess is that whoever designed them does not know the first thing about audio post production or digital metering and work flow between formats.
If Final Cut Pro uses -12dbfs as their reference instead of sony -20 standard then so be it, but broadcast standard is -20dbfs = 0dbm
It looks like they have taken the -12dbfs = 0dbm and included it into the meters in STP. So they are no longer using the -12 ref correctly and are not actually Digital Full Scale Meters but an entirly NEW kind of meter that Apple has design for the purpose of?
So a REAL -12db full scale signal shows as 0db full scale in these meters what ever they are. Not rational or useful. Plus the balistics are from outer space. You cannot seem to tell how close you are to the imginary O reference they are using.
I repeat: A REAL - 12DB Full Scale signal, shows as 0db Full Scale in these meters adding to an already confusing hodge podge of digital references.
Minor discrepency
So if you want to master your audio close to 0db full scale for DVD you will have to use a different program as 0dbfs does not exist on these meters! So when you hit +12db on these meters the signal is actually 0dbfs on ANY OTHER FULL SCALE DIGITAL METER IN THE WORLD.
Daniel Shattuck
Creative Director
Trinity Learning Community

FCP to STP back to FCP now video out of sync

I exported from FCP to STP via multitrack, did my audio edits, then exported back to FCP via xml import. Three video clips in FCP are now out of sequence (they are completely different, like they have different I/O points. These clips are only 1 second long .
Any ideas on why?

I hate when someone doesn't first search threads for answers before posting. That would be ME late last night. After searching, I don't find definitive answers to my issues.
I am using DV NSTC 48Khz preset in FCP.
The FCP Easy setup: Format NTSC, Rate (all rates)
In STP, Preferences, synchronization, frame rate is 30 non-drop. Is this correct?
What is 30/29.97/Drop Frame?
Could this cause my video clips to come back to FCP out of sync and have the wrong I/O points.
I would really like to use STP instead of just doing the sound in FCP.

FCP to STP: "Can't find render.mov"

I'm having trouble roundtripping FCP to STP. I control/click, choose send to STP, but half the time i get an error message that it can't find the "render.mov" file. Or, sometimes it goes to STP, but when I save to send it back, I get the same message.
Someone on another board suggested I delete all my render files via Render Manager, then re-render the timeline. Is that safe? Is there any risk involved in deleting those render files? Also, will deleting those also delete any STP changes I was able to make?
Thanks for any help or suggestions!
David Manis

This is what you need to do. uninstall FCP and then install FCS. it may take time to find every thing. don't forget
Library> application support> pro apps
Preferences too.. if you have footage on the computer that you want, don't delete those capture scratch files and render files.
there are some files in there also....

Exporting from FCP to STP not going so well

Hello All,
I've been working between FCP and STP, sending the audio over to STP for a better mix.
Things have been going pretty well, although the feature of having the export back to FCP and automatically drop in the timeline doesn't seem to work. I do like the greater degeree of control via STP.
Anyway, I am attempting to send another multi-track file over to STP. I'm attempting to do this from the timeline, and not from the browser. To accomplish this, I select all, then choose send from the file menu, etc.
The following is happening:
1. The file send reads, "Exporting XML Data"
2. Then it stops, and a new message reads, "Error sending selection to Soundrack Pro"
Any ideas what might be happening. Is it merely a preference trash in order?
Thoughts.
Thanks.
DG

Okay,
I need to know. Is it my questions, or is this group restricted to FCP internal issues only. I'm always amazed that 25 people have viewed this type of question, but the wealth of experience doesn't toss just one pearl of wisdom.
I think this is FCP related, but perhaps the exporting closes the door on interest.
Let me down gently, as I'm fragile
DG

Workflow FCP - AE - Color ??

Hi all,
I'm working on a post-production of a music video and I'm bit confused about the best post-production workflow. The film has been shot with Nikon D90 camera, and I've converted the files to ProRes422 for editing in FinalCutPro. Arter editing, I will need to do some effects in After Effects and I would like to do the color-correction in Color.
So the questing is, what would be the best order to do things? In AE I have lot of keying and compositing to do. I can move the files from FCP to AE with XML-script, but after AE it will be one rendered clip which is bad for Color. But if I do Color before AE, my compositions and effects won't get the look.. So how would you do this so that the quality stays best and it's easiest to handle?
Thank you in advance,

Thank you David for your answer,
I've done many productions with ProRes and It's working great. Nowadays I do most everything with it. I think I won't have problems with the audio. It's a music video, so no sound-editing.
I naturally won't NEED XML for moving to AE, but it makes things a lot easier. I just export the XML from FCP, and import it to AE by using script from Popcorn Island (http://www.popcornisland.com/category/after-effects/) (It's kinda same as Automatic Duck, but free..) So this way I get everything to AE on separate tracks without rendering and can do all the transitions and fx stuff there. I often do some rough compositions and movements in FCP, and the keyframes transit as well, so I can tweak them in AE. It's really nice way to work.
I don't really use lowrez, my machine works fast enough with full quality clips.
Usually I finish the whole thing in AE and just render it out, but the actual questiong is combining Color to this thing. This time I would like to finish in Color. I haven't used Color before, so this triangle of programs is a new situation for me.
Actually when writing this my friend suggested of using EDL like this:
So maybe like:
FCP -> XML to AE
Render AE -> to FCP
FCP -> EDL of the original file to Color,
and finally Color -> back to FCP and to Compressor...
I haven't tried it yet but I will tomorrow and let you know if it works.
Still I would love to hear better ways to do this. I'm sure there are people who are doing this everyday, so good hints are appreciated..
Thanks in advance, and sorry for bad grammar..

FCP to STP workflow problems

Hi all, having some real problems with a charitable recording I have done for the kids local theatrical group and wonder if anyone can help. Here is the issue:
Recorded kids play with single cam with onboard mic. Used Sony HDV A1 which has used track 1 for the audio from the shotgun mic and has put the audio from the onboard stereo? mics on track 2. Audio is as good as its going to be with the shotgun mic apart from the times when parents are clapping when it distorts.
Have the whole play in 2 long - 45mins - runs without any stop start.
I then put the sequence on the timeline and use the razor blade to split the various scenes (need to cut some of the play out). Now have the whole play with 2 audio tracks with cuts where I want them. Tricky bit comes next.
I need to loose the audio track 2 as it is too quiet and use the mono track 1 but try to do something with the distorted and too loud sections. I tried to send each cut scene to STP, make the adjustments, send it back etc., but have noticed (after waiting 24-hours for the render down to SD for the DVD) that each of the cut scenes seems to have been treated as a whole 90 minute section by STP with each one coming in at 1.2Gb! No wonder Compressor was taking a long time to do its stuff!
So, I take it there is a better way but any idea how I should do this? Working with the 45 minute clips on the timeline is nice and easy but how do I handle the audio? Just want the one track replicated across audio 1 and 2 plus for STP to just handle each section of the sequence rather than the whole thing.
Many thanks in advance,
Michael

Hi Jim,
Many thanks - this has helped a lot and I can now work on the audio with each clip and the resulting file size has gone down to a fraction of the original.
Any thoughts on the 2nd part of my question around audio tracks? As mentioned my Sony A1 seems to have captured two tracks and I need to discard one (the onboard mic). If I do this by simply deleting the 2nd Audio track in FCP when I open the track 1 in STP I can see it again. I guess by removing it from the FCP timeline does not result in removing the track from the referenced file that is sent to STP.
Tried converting tracks to mono in STP, saving and returning to FCP but then I get a 'reconnect missing media' error as the number of tracks has changed. When I reconnect it works fine (mono audio from both left and right) but the red \ through the file name audio symbol is still shown against the STP file name in the FCP browser. Suppose I can live with this but the red \ is probably telling me that I am doing something wrong!!
Thanks once again for the help so far,
Regards, Mike

Workflow for Green Screen Multicam, Color Correction. (CC 2014)

Hi
What is the best workflow to do a music video shot with 7 cameras (each with 4 takes) on a green screen which would also include green screen stills.
All shot with Consumer Grade cameras at 1920/1080 at the highest resolution (I think 30 fps)
The way I am going about is not efficient.
My tasks are:
Key each 20 minute clip (to get about 2 usable minutes)
Rotate my DSLR video (shot in landscape so I could take stills as well)
Color correct all clips
Create a new cleaned up movie for each clip including: Proper format. Keyed with new background, Color Corrected, Re-encoded as a new movie, Re-imported as 7 new movies, begin to edit.
I was watching some movies about pasting attributes which look helpful and also about nesting sequences which looks like it could save time.
What is the best workflow steps to do all this? Am I going about it the right way by creating new movie clips which are keyed with a new background, color corrected, and reencoded including all the garbage footage? Then create a new multicam project to edit the cleaned up footage?
HELP!

Temporary solution for this was "export xml" after all. I had to disable all graphics and textlayers and delete colorcorrections, and flatten multicam, so i had to redo all grading ja graphics stuff in older premiere after importin FCP xml. But got the work done in time. Won't use cc 2014 in near future unless someone figures out what is wrong with green frames. (well actually now im exporting from older AME, will she if the green frames pops out there too, wouldn't be too much surprised....)

FCP into STP missing Audio files

I have been working w/out STP for a couple of years now and have been getting by okay. Now I am looking to take advantage of STP "streamlined workflow"
I can't even bring my project succesfully into STP from FCP, majority of sound won't send into STP.
I believe it is some type of setting in FCP and or STP.(audio effects originaly exported from stp into fcp will cross apps, audio taken from tape will not, sony xd sound will not)
Any Ideas

• When you opened the Song, did it tell you that files were missing (in which case, it would give you the opportunity to search for them)?
• Did you Save the Song when you finished the recording session (because if not, it won't know you recorded anything new)?
• Did you record onto a removable hard drive?
• Did you delete Regions in the Arrange Window & choose the wrong option, thereby deleting the actual audio files themselves rather than just the Regions?
There are many, many ways to go from here, so answer these questions first & we'll take it from there. The more detail you can give, the easier it will be to find out what happened & what to do about it.

FCP EDL Import from Color Misbehaving

I have successfully imported an EDL/Master file (from FCP)into Color, it razored automagically. I've done the grading and rendered out the graded media. Now how do I get the rendered media, with each shot in it's own folder, back into a timeline for output? I tried the export edl command in Color, but when importing it into FCP I get one long clip with a few markers that indicate errors (no duration)and media offline??? Tried an XML export/import with no success. Thoughts?
Thanks

ColorBob wrote:
I have successfully imported an EDL/Master file (from FCP)into Color, it razored automagically.
Automagic razoring in Color?
ColorBob wrote:
I tried the export edl command in Color, but when importing it into FCP I get one long clip with a few markers that indicate errors (no duration)and media offline??? Tried an XML export/import with no success. Thoughts?
I don't know why the XML won't work. You probably should check out the manual on the EDL workflow - which might lock you into that workflow in FCP. But I'm not sure and might be wrong.
However, all is not lost. Your clips when rendered are numbered in the order they appear on the timeline. So... write yourself a quick and dirty Automater script to pull out all the .mov files and drop them into a new folder. Import that folder into FCP. Select all clips and drop them into the timeline and they should sort automagically, head to tail in number order.
HTH
- pi

Help with Workflow FCP to Compressor then DVD Pro and Shaky footage

Hi, I am new to using a MAC and also to Final Cut Studio so if this question has been asked before or seems obvious then I offer my apologies.
I have a clip on the timeline which is a little shaky but I need to use it. I have added a SmoothCam filter and when I playback in FCP all seems OK however after sending to Compressor then eventually to DVD Pro the clip shows as being shaky again, almost as if the filter had been deleted in the Compressor. Could someone perhaps talk me through the correct workflow I should be using and maybe suggest where I am going wrong please. As I said this is my first attempt to author a DVD with FCP on my MAC.
The footage was captured on my Panasonic Home camcorder. The settings in my camera were set at 1920 x 1080 HG mode for High Definition.
In my camera user guide it refers to the images being based upon the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec so should I have set something similar when capturing into FCP.
Any advice would be welcomed.
Regards
Fred

Hi Mike I tried everything to try and resolve this one, I tried all combinations of field dominance. I also followed the recommendations from the Apple help to use the intermediate codec (search under AVCHD in the Help files) If I get anywhere I will mail you
Regards
Fred
PS I had some advice from another forum group who said to try and export a Quicktime movie into DVD Pro and not to send to Compressor, I will try that later and see if that helps.

Help on FCP and STP

Hi James,
I tried to do what you said and it half works ! By sending one track at the time when I control-click the audio track I have now two options:
STP Audio File Project / STP Multitrack Project
I can also choose the - Open in Editor- option
The only problem is that the clip sent to STP for editing it's not the one I edited in FCP, but it's actually the master clip (much longer) !!!
Why ?!!!
Do I have to send both cips (L-R) and work on each of them separately ?
Instead if I want to edit the clip using a STP Script the pop up menu still doesn't give me the option to choose the script I want to use as there still isn't any submenu to choose from !
Thanks a lot
Stefano

Hi Stefano, When you control click and the menu opens do you scroll down the list until you find the STP selection, When you control click on the timeline all the external editors should appear in a menu and then a sub-menu with different choices for STP.
Brendan
G5 DP 2.7Ghz, FCP 5 Studio iBook 14 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Workflow (FCP-Motion-Soundtrack_DVDSP) & Apack

I've been encoding mp2 & ac3 files in Compressor & Apack (since DSP 1.0) and used to building up assets outside DSP before authoring.
Now though, with a workflow that includes sending clips to Motion & Soundtrack Pro from within FCP, I can get away with NOT rendering out any files (i.e. keeping all files as QTRFs) and then dragging these into DSP 3.0. DSP then does the background rendering (using the same engine as compressor) at the bitrate I set in Preferences.
All familiar I guess, and I'm getting good results WITHOUT having a bunch of large files kicking around before the build, and with the advantage of making a small adjustment to, say, a Motion file, which will then filter it's way up the line & auto update itself.
Should I be worrying about Apack though? There doesn't seem to be a setting for the audio to be compressed into an ac3 within DSP. Am I risking a data-rate problem down the line if I do it this way? (just working in Stereo at the moment). Also, what about the audio volume levels for DVD (that I used to tweak in Apack?)
Any thoughts? Cheers.

Hi Simon
I guess it really comes down to the work you're doing per job. I never used to use A.pack because I didn't have a need for it. I was encoding at low enough bitrates with short enough durations not to bother. A few projects gave me problems with 'bitrate too high' errors and then I found the advantage of A.pack. Now I'm using DVDSP4 and Compressor2 so A.pack is not so important (although I still have it on the system for special occassions). DVDSP4 still doesn't encode to .ac3 but Compressor 2 does. If you're generally not having any problems with your projects and you're comfortable with your workflow then why mess with it.
Personally I still can't help rendering out all my assets and mpeging them before I get to DVDSP - after reading some of the bizzare problems that turn up in this forum and never experiencing most of them myself I'm quite happy with this process. Plus it gives me more opportunities to go make a coffee!
Cheers
B

Media Offline when Exporting back to FCP from STP. Lesson 10 in APTS book.

Hello, I am going through the Apple Pro Training Series Book by Martin Sitter found a road block in Lesson 10. The topic is conforming at that seems to work decently (except for garbled text in the right side of the Conform tab). My issue is when trying to export back to FCP. I choose to Send Files to FCP sequence. A new sequence is created in the selected project as expected. The audio is fine, but instead of using the video from the correct sequence, it seems to be trying to use clips from the older sequence. Additionally, all the video clips show up as Media Offline. I can reconnect media, but the problem is that it is the wrong video sequence. Oddly, in STP the video looks perfect. Is there an error in the metadata? can this be fixed or prevented? Thank you

Barreltone,
I am exporting back into Final Cut Pro via Send to Sequence. I have been exporting from the browser of FCP (sequence), and not the timeline (clips). I'm going to try that tactic, and see if that works.
DG

Workflow FCP to STP to Color efficiency

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